Rough Draft

Demian Farnworth delivers the essential writing advice you need to succeed online, in about four minutes a day, four days a week. If you're a pure writer, and you wonder how you'll be able to build your own online platform that actually gets seen, this show is your shortcut.

These days, you want to write a headline that will blow up on the social web. A headline that will get people to pound the “Share” button … a headline to clog our Twitter feed with thousands of retweets. But there’s a problem …

Allow me to tell you a story. A story that you will probably be able to relate to in some sense. It’s about a stout, whiskered man who thinks sound decisions can come only from a cool head. And that copy should always be short.

While Enlightenment-era thinkers like Denis Diderot, Benjamin Franklin, René Descartes, David Hume, and Thomas Jefferson — giants from the age of reason — would like you to believe otherwise, we are not as rational as we think we are.

You could have a great product, a revolutionary idea, or a compelling piece of content, but unless you position it with the right approach that instantly captures the imagination of your ideal prospect, forget it.